One of my book club acquaintances recently asked me about my personal library. Given my profession and love for reading, she assumed I would have a room filled with books. Here’s what I told her: no. I likely have more books than the average person, but I do not buy every book I read – not even close. First of all, I can’t afford that! I would LOVE to support every author and buy their book. But instead, I support local libraries and check out most books I read. I also love to give away books. If I feel like a friend would really love a book and I happen to have it, I give it to them… or let them “borrow” it. I also donate books so more people can have access to great stories. However, there are some exceptions.
Lisa Jewell is an exception.
I pre-ordered this book as soon as it was announced. Lisa Jewell tells the most riveting stories. Her books are the kind that keep you up all night reading. Her stories are unique, and though they sometimes follow a certain formula, they aren’t predictable.
Watching You was her best yet. She has set the bar HIGH for herself.
Here’s what it’s about: Melville Heights is one of the nicest neighborhoods in Bristol, England; home to doctors and lawyers and old-money academics. It’s not the sort of place where people are brutally murdered in their own kitchens. But it is the sort of place where everyone has a secret. And everyone is watching you. As the headmaster credited with turning around the local school, Tom Fitzwilliam is beloved by one and all—including Joey Mullen, his new neighbor, who quickly develops an intense infatuation with this thoroughly charming yet unavailable man. Joey thinks her crush is a secret, but Tom’s teenaged son Freddie—a prodigy with aspirations of becoming a spy for MI5—excels in observing people and has witnessed Joey behaving strangely around his father. One of Tom’s students, Jenna Tripp, also lives on the same street, and she’s not convinced her teacher is as squeaky clean as he seems. For one thing, he has taken a particular liking to her best friend and fellow classmate, and Jenna’s mother—whose mental health has admittedly been deteriorating in recent years—is convinced that Mr. Fitzwilliam is stalking her. Meanwhile, twenty years earlier, a schoolgirl writes in her diary, charting her doomed obsession with a handsome young English teacher named Mr. Fitzwilliam…
After reading the summary, I immediately pegged Mr. Fitzwilliam as the “bad guy.” I’ve read enough thrillers to know it’s not THAT easy, but I still assumed he would be an antagonist. I was right – kind of.
Jewell is a master of writing the shades of grey. It’s like she has a pallet of a thousand colors in front of her, and as she writes, she chooses six colors per character…. per chapter. This makes the characters complex and it also elicits a sense of empathy for each character, no matter how “bad” they are.
However, her metaphorical character paintings are abstract enough to let the reader form their own opinion on each character their respective challenges.
A major theme of the book is the watcher and the watched. Jewell grants us perspectives of both. Sometimes the watched is watching someone else. And vice versa. Sometimes there’s a weird triangle of whom is being watched. Sometimes being “watched” isn’t quite so literal. We make assumptions based on what we see with the naked eye, but how would we feel if others made such assumptions on occasional glimpses of our own lives?
The twist isn’t super obvious, but I was definitely able to nail it about 10 pages before it was revealed. I would have loved it if the ending left more up to the readers’ imagination, but it still left me feeling fulfilled.
Lisa Jewell is an exception.
I pre-ordered this book as soon as it was announced. Lisa Jewell tells the most riveting stories. Her books are the kind that keep you up all night reading. Her stories are unique, and though they sometimes follow a certain formula, they aren’t predictable.
Watching You was her best yet. She has set the bar HIGH for herself.
Here’s what it’s about: Melville Heights is one of the nicest neighborhoods in Bristol, England; home to doctors and lawyers and old-money academics. It’s not the sort of place where people are brutally murdered in their own kitchens. But it is the sort of place where everyone has a secret. And everyone is watching you. As the headmaster credited with turning around the local school, Tom Fitzwilliam is beloved by one and all—including Joey Mullen, his new neighbor, who quickly develops an intense infatuation with this thoroughly charming yet unavailable man. Joey thinks her crush is a secret, but Tom’s teenaged son Freddie—a prodigy with aspirations of becoming a spy for MI5—excels in observing people and has witnessed Joey behaving strangely around his father. One of Tom’s students, Jenna Tripp, also lives on the same street, and she’s not convinced her teacher is as squeaky clean as he seems. For one thing, he has taken a particular liking to her best friend and fellow classmate, and Jenna’s mother—whose mental health has admittedly been deteriorating in recent years—is convinced that Mr. Fitzwilliam is stalking her. Meanwhile, twenty years earlier, a schoolgirl writes in her diary, charting her doomed obsession with a handsome young English teacher named Mr. Fitzwilliam…
After reading the summary, I immediately pegged Mr. Fitzwilliam as the “bad guy.” I’ve read enough thrillers to know it’s not THAT easy, but I still assumed he would be an antagonist. I was right – kind of.
Jewell is a master of writing the shades of grey. It’s like she has a pallet of a thousand colors in front of her, and as she writes, she chooses six colors per character…. per chapter. This makes the characters complex and it also elicits a sense of empathy for each character, no matter how “bad” they are.
However, her metaphorical character paintings are abstract enough to let the reader form their own opinion on each character their respective challenges.
A major theme of the book is the watcher and the watched. Jewell grants us perspectives of both. Sometimes the watched is watching someone else. And vice versa. Sometimes there’s a weird triangle of whom is being watched. Sometimes being “watched” isn’t quite so literal. We make assumptions based on what we see with the naked eye, but how would we feel if others made such assumptions on occasional glimpses of our own lives?
The twist isn’t super obvious, but I was definitely able to nail it about 10 pages before it was revealed. I would have loved it if the ending left more up to the readers’ imagination, but it still left me feeling fulfilled.